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The Home of Evolutioneers

Dennis Genpo Merzel

Dennis Genpo Merzel RoshiDennis Genpo Merzel Roshi is a revolutionary in the true tradition of the old Zen Masters who so completely embodied their heritage that they were able to revitalize and transform it for their day and age. A pivotal figure in Buddhism’s 2500-year evolution across cultures and civilizations, Genpo Roshi is at the forefront of the pioneers who are bringing the essence of Buddha’s teachings from the East to the global community of the 21st century.

The core of Genpo Roshi’s teaching is the unshakeable and contagious certainty that every one of us, regardless of our socio-economic, cultural or religious background, can attain enlightenment instantly like the great masters of old — like the historical Buddha himself, whose essential teaching was nothing less than this. Roshi’s amazingly simple style of teaching, melding the ancient wisdom of Zen tradition with the insights of such visionary western figures as Karl Jung, Fritz Perls, and Hal Stone, has transformed western Zen teaching. Reaffirming this essential insight of Buddha’s enlightenment, it has enabled thousands of people throughout the western world to experience enlightenment themselves in a way never before thought possible.

Dennis Genpo Merzel comes from a long line of Rabbis. Born in Brooklyn NY, he grew up in Southern California where he was a high school champion swimmer and All-American water polo player. Captain of his junior college team which went undefeated in 1963 against all the great four year universities, he won a gold medal as a member of the American water polo team at the 1965 Maccabean Games in Israel. He earned a Masters degree in education from the University of Southern California and was a teacher and lifeguard before ordaining as a Zen monk under the great Japanese Zen Master Taizan Maezumi in 1973. Completing formal Koan study in 1980 he became Maezumi Roshi's second Dharma Successor, the first being the brilliant Bernie Tetsugen Glassman. He received Inka (Zen Mastership) from Roshi Glassman in 1996, thereby becoming one of a small group of Westerners recognized as lineage holders in both the Soto and Rinzai Zen traditions.

In 1982 Genpo Sensei began teaching throughout Europe and established the international group he named the Kanzeon (Love and Compassion) Sangha. He has six Dhama Successors: Catherine Genno Pages, John Shodo Flatt, Anton Tenkei Coppens, Malgosia Jiho Braunek, Daniel Doen Silberberg, Nico Sojun Tydeman. He has given Inka to two Zen teachers John Daido Loori and Catherine Genno Pages.

Roshi is the author of four books,

and several DVDs. He is married to Stephanie Young Merzel, co-administrator of Kanzeon Zen Center International, and has two children, Tai B. Merzel an aerospace engineer and graduate student at the University of Southern California, and Nicole Li Merzel a mathematics major at the University of Puget Sound.

For more information about Genpo Roshi please visit www.bigmind.org

Click here to see the complete list of Teachers of Universal Spirituality Recognized by Universe Spirit.

 

 

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